Enter your email to subscribe:

During the 2008 hurricane season, 10 tropical storms and hurricanes have ravaged Haiti, Cuba and the US Gulf coast. Six Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes hit the US from late July
to mid-September, causing billions of dollars in damage. Four
devastated Haiti, killing hundreds of people and wiping out any
progress during the last few years in building infrastructure, planting
trees, and other economic development efforts. Cuba was hit hard by
Gustav and Ike. Oil and gas production in the Gulf took a severe hit also.

For obvious reasons, many hurricane researchers blame the increased
strenth of tropical storms and hurricanes on global warming. This
might be just another story of the impacts of global warming....another
of the 100+ stories I covered over the last three years. But this one
is personal. My congregation has been investing in improving health conditions in Haiti and we expected to fund several water projects in Haiti during the next year. But....what is left of our previous efforts...and what will happen to our future efforts to help alleviate the extreme poverty and suffering of the Haitian people? Nothing is the answer, so long as the world is allowing global warming to increase.

And the end is not yet in sight. Though the statistical peak of the season has past, severe hurricane
conditions are expected to continue through at least October 15th. The
extreme weather is no surprise: hurricane forecasters had predicted up
to 18 cyclones. Even now, warm sea temperatures, low wind shear, a
neutral El Nino, and other factors that contribute to the formation of
hurricanes are still in place. In particular, water in the Caribbean
and Atlantic is 0.9 to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than usual and
warm water is the basic feedstock of hurricanes.

Although the 2008 season has been tamer thus far than the record-breaking 2005 season,
which brought 28 storms forcing forecasters to use the Greek alphabet
to name them, 2008 has set a record of its own: six storms in a row hit
the United States. This is the largest number of times the US has been
hit by tropical cyclones since 1851.